*Tatyana Ali is sharing details about how her first pregnancy was quite a traumatic experience.Â
Speaking to SheKnows for its Fourth Trimester digital issue, Ali recalls the emergency c-section she had for the birth of her now-4-year-old son Edward “Aszi” in September 2016. Aszi spent a week in the NICU. The “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alum, 42, said it was a “very traumatic” process and was her first experience with the “institutional bias” that Black women often encounter, as reported by PEOPLE.Â
“My experience in the hospital for my first son was really my first experience with institutional bias — you know, the kind of coercion and not really listening to our birth plan, interventions that were totally unnecessary and that I didn’t want, all of that — and then the ensuing cascade of problems that come out of that,” says Ali.
READ MORE:Â Tatyana Ali Talks Colorism with Clay Cane & Has A Message For Janet Hubert / SiriusXM Video
Actress Tatyana Ali on How Her First Son’s Birth Changed Her – SheKnows https://t.co/oaj1Jmpnn8
— Tatyana Ali (@TatyanaAli) May 14, 2021
When she gave birth to her second child in August 2019, Ali said the anxiety she had with her firstborn came back. “The fear came back: ‘How are we going to do this? What is it going to be like? It can’t be like what it was before. How do we prevent that?’ “
Ali says she “started to realize and recognize that my story fits really neatly into the Black maternal health story.”
The actress planned for “all-natural, home birth, water birth” for her second baby, son Alejandro Vaughn, but she ultimately underwent a c-section at the hospital.
“When it came down to it, I ended up in the hospital and I had an amazing experience. It was completely different — because I had choices,” explains Ali. “There was somebody there who respected me, respected us as a family, got to know us as a family, guided us through everything, and gave us choices. It was incredible.”
Ali will reportedly share her birthing experience in a documentary she’s directing titled “Birth Right: The Quilt,” which explores Black maternal healthcare and reproductive justice, per PEOPLE.
“My [maternal] instincts have made me a stronger person, in general, because I know what it feels like to speak up for them. Sometimes you’ve got to be a lion, you know?” she says.
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